Wednesday, February 23, 2011

“6. Despite her unquestioned commitment to the Company, Ms. Tagocon was subject to unlawful discrimination for engaging in lawful recreational activities on her personal time, outside of work.

7. Specifically, for years Plaintiff has been a blogger and a novelist, about issues wholly unrelated to her employment with JP Morgan, a fact that she made no attempt to hide during her employment.

8. Indeed, at the time that Ms. Tagocon was offered employment by Defendant, the Head of her Department, __, and her Manager, __, knew that she was a novelist and raised no objections to her novels and blog.

9. However, in June 2010, when Ms. Tagocon was reviewing Defendant’s 2010 Code of Conduct, she discovered that Defendant had a policy of prohibiting its employees from posting certaininformation on the internet, even during their free time.

10. Although Ms. Tagocon knew that her novels and blogs were wholly unrelated to her employment at JP Morgan, she approached members of the Company’s management and human resources to confirm that her actions did not violate the Code of Conduct in any way.

11. When meeting with the Company’s representatives, Ms. Tagocon reaffirmed that her blogs and novels were of a personal nature and were unrelated to any of the work that she did for JP Morgan, nor did she use any information related to her employment in producing either her blog or her novels.

12. Plaintiff further explained that she uses a penname, has never revealed whom she works for on any public forum and that all of her blogging and writing was conducted outside of work hours using her own personal equipment.

13. Despite Ms. Tagocon’s explanations, she was informed that the Company would terminate her employment unless she took down her blog, completely ceased marketing her novels, and signed the Code of Conduct.

14. When Plaintiff refused to accede to these facially outrageous demands, Defendant terminated her employment without further explanation.

15. At no point did the Company tell her that her termination was warranted due to her performance or due to any other factor.

16. Plaintiff was informed of her termination, effective August 7, 2010, on July 23, 2010 and was instructed to not return to the office after July 23, 2010.”

Marilyn found out on June 11, 2010 that this is an example of what JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) employees may NOT post on the internet on their own time: “I think the financial services industry is over-regulated and should be governed by market forces only.”

Ten months earlier, her husband became seriously ill. He has since been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Marilyn is the sole breadwinner of the family.

When JPMC’s representatives informed Marilyn to choose between her job and writing, it was a choice between her livelihood and freedom of speech, a choice between freedom outside of work and putting her family at grave economic risk, a choice between her family’s well-being and her self-respect, a choice between excruciating mental anguish and hating herself 24/7 for betraying her principles.

I know of her mental anguish and of her family’s pride in her decision because I am Marilyn Tagocon.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Thomas Jefferson reduced the national debt from $83 million to $57 million while abolishing ALL excise taxes including the whiskey tax in the first year of his first presidency, while engaging in the Barbary War two months into his first presidency, and then spending $15 million to double the then size of the USA.

On the National Debt and Deficit Spending, Jefferson said:

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

"I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

"The earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence."

On the Constitutionality of the Bank of the US [Federal Reserve], Jefferson said:

“Giving [Congress] a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole [Constitution] to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly, no such universal power was meant to be given them."

"The Bank of the United States… is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution… An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this Bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?"

Instead of talking about how Jefferson managed the nation’s money, Hamiltonians, the pro-Federal-Reserve, and gossips disparage Thomas Jefferson, saying he had personal financial difficulties. One’s personal life is no one’s business. For all the good that Thomas Jefferson did for FREEDOM, the lies, gossips, malevolence, and vitriol against him are shocking.

Jefferson was first elected into public office when he was 26 years old. In early 1809, when he finished his second term as president, he was almost 66. He said, "I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty."

Jefferson served the cause of freedom and his country during his prime and for forty years. After which, he pursued science and natural history through research, experimentation, and invention, he continued in his post as the elected president of the American Philosophical Society until 1815, and he founded the University of Virginia. Jefferson designed all of its campus buildings, set up its curriculum, and selected its faculty. The University is notable in U.S. history for being the first educational institution to offer academic programs in disciplines such as astronomy, botany, and philosophy. Its School of Engineering and Applied Science was the first engineering school in the United States to be part of a comprehensive university. In the University of Virginia, Jefferson implemented his vision that education should be completely separate from religious doctrine.

The University was established in 1819 and Jefferson died in 1826. Jefferson served the causes of freedom, science, and education his entire life. For emphasis, I repeat: Thomas Jefferson reduced the national debt from $83 million to $57 million while abolishing ALL excise taxes including the whiskey tax in the first year of his first presidency, while engaging in the Barbary War two months into his first presidency, and then spending $15 million to double the then size of the USA.

Yet, there are those who delve into his personal life and disparage him for his personal financial hardships.

It seems an injustice that he had personal financial difficulties. It is revolting that he is disparaged for it when he devoted his entire life serving his country, adding nothing to his private fortune during his public service, and retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Slavery was OBTRUDED on the Colonies by King George III. Thomas Jefferson INHERITED slaves. It was AGAINST THE LAW TO FREE THEM.

When he was 26 years old, chosen for the first time to be a member of a legislature, he submitted a bill for the EMANCIPATION of ALL slaves. As a lawyer in 1770, age 27, Jefferson defended a slave, saying: "Under the law of nature, all men are born free."

Facts:

1769: Chosen for the first time to be a member of a legislature, Thomas Jefferson made one effort in the House of Burgesses for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, but was rejected.

"In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the choice of the county in which I live, and so continued until it was closed by the Revolution. I made one effort in that body for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected: and indeed, during the regal government, nothing liberal could expect success."

1770: As a lawyer, Thomas Jefferson defended a slave, saying: "Under the law of nature, all men are born free."

"Under the law of nature, all men are born free; every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance." -- Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770. FE 1:376

1776: He strongly condemned slavery in his draft of the Declaration of Independence.

1778: The legislature passed a bill he proposed to ban further importation of slaves into Virginia.

1784: His draft of what became the Northwest Ordinance stipulated that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude" in any of the new states admitted to the Union from the Northwest Territory.

1806: President Jefferson requested Congress to ban all slave importation to the US.

1807: As President, Jefferson signed a bill abolishing the slave trade: on March 3, 1807, as President of the USA, Thomas Jefferson signed a bill making slave importation illegal in the United States.

Thomas Jefferson is the author of the Declaration of Independence, the Father of religious freedom, the advocate of the Bill of Rights, and the President who abolished the slave trade: “the business or process of procuring, transporting, and selling slaves, esp. black Africans to the New World prior to the mid-19th century.” Jefferson successfully abolished primogeniture in Virginia, the rule by which the first born son inherited all the land.

Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence evinces his abhorrence of slavery -

"He (King George III) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another."

The anti-freedom lie about Jefferson. They dishonestly drop context.

"While Jefferson did not free all of his slaves on his death (as did Washington), a law passed in Virginia in 1806 required that the legislature pass a special bill that would attest to the exemplary behavior of each slave to be freed. If freed, THE SLAVE HAD TO LEAVE THE STATE WITHOUT HIS OR HER FAMILY.

Jefferson tried unsuccessfully to get this law changed. Further, Jefferson trained his slaves in skills that would be useful when they were free. He believed that to free them first would be irresponsible -- since they would be homeless and without family."

Abraham Lincoln extolled: "THE PRINCIPLES OF JEFFERSON ARE THE DEFINITIONS AND AXIOMS OF FREE SOCIETY… ALL HONOR TO JEFFERSON - to the man, who in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.”

Historians have lied about Jefferson. I compiled these facts when this came to my attention:

The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia website states: “As historian David Brion Davis noted, if Jefferson had died in 1785, he would be remembered as an antislavery hero, as "one of the first statesmen anywhere to advocate concrete measures for eradicating slavery." After that time, however, there came a "thundering silence." Jefferson made no public statements on American slavery nor did he take any significant public action to change the course of his state or his nation.”

This is a MALEVOLENT LIE.

Other articles I've written about Thomas Jefferson and facebook pages I created:

The bankrupt government wants to finance a high-speed rail. Thomas Jefferson would have deemed this highly inappropriate. In 1796, he wrote to James Madison:

"Have you considered all the consequences of your proposition respecting post roads? I view it as a source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress and their friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money. You will begin by only appropriating the surplus of the post office revenues; but the other revenues will soon be called into their aid, and it will be a source of eternal scramble among the members, who can get the most money wasted in their state; and they will always get most who are meanest. We have thought, hitherto, that the roads of a state could not be so well administered even by the state legislature as by the magistracy of the county, on the spot. How will they be when a member of New Hampshire is to mark out a road for Georgia? Does the power to establish post roads, given by the Constitution, mean that you shall make the roads, or only select from those already made, those on which there shall be a post?"

-The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Albert Ellery Bergh

A pro-freedom government would sell public transportation facilities to the private sector and end the U.S. Department of Transportation.

From Thomas J. DiLorenzo’s How Capitalism Saved America -

"James J. Hill built the Great Northern Railroad ‘without any government aid, even the right of way, through hundreds of miles of public lands, being paid for in cash,’ as Hill himself stated.

Quite naturally, Hill strongly opposed government favors to his competitors: ‘The government should not furnish capital to these companies, in addition to their enormous land subsidies, to enable them to conduct their business in competition with enterprises that have received no aid from the public treasury,’ he wrote. This may sound quaint by today's standards, but it was still a hotly debated issue in the late nineteenth century.

James J. Hill was hardly a ‘baron’ or aristocrat. His father died when he was fourteen, so he dropped out of school to work in a grocery store for four dollars a month to help support his widowed mother. As a young adult he worked in the farming, shipping, steamship, fur-trading, and railroad industries. He learned the ways of business in these settings, saved his money, and eventually became an investor and manager of his own enterprises. It was much easier to accomplish such things in the days before income taxation.

Hill got his start in the railroad business when he and several partners purchased a bankrupted Minnesota railroad that had been run into the ground by the government-subsidized Northern Pacific (NP). The NP had been a patronage ‘reward’ to financier Jay Cooke, who in the War Between the States had been one of the Union's leading financiers. But Cooke and his NP associates built recklessly; the government's subsidies and land grants were issued on a per-mile-of-track basis, so Cooke and his cohorts had strong incentives to build as quickly as possible, which only encouraged shoddy work. Consequently, by 1873 the NP developers had fallen into bankruptcy. The people of Minnesota and the Dakotas, where the railroad was being built, considered Cooke and his business associates to be ‘derelicts at best and thieves at worst,’ writes Hill biographer Michael P. Malone.…

The Great Northern's efficiency and profitability were legendary, whereas the government-subsidized railroads, managed by a group of political entrepreneurs who focused more on acquiring subsidies than on building sound railroads, were inefficiently built and operated. Jay Cooke was not the only one whose government-subsidized railroad ended up in bankruptcy.

In fact, Hill's Great Northern was the only transcontinental railroad that never went bankrupt.…”

Freedom is coercion-free existence. Freedom is made possible by a wall of separation between government, the entity that holds the monopoly on legal coercive power, and all non-force realms.

A freedom-respecting government would emulate Thomas Jefferson:

“I received duly your [letter]...covering an offer of Mr. McDonald of an iron mine to the public.... But having always observed that public works are much less advantageously managed than the same are by private hands, I have thought it better for the public to go to market for whatever it wants which is to be found there; for there competition brings it down to the minimum of value. I have no doubt we can buy brass cannon at market cheaper than we could make iron ones."

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Should a candidate appeal to voters’ reason and love of liberty? What kind of a politician would not?

Many Republican primary hopefuls espouse Christianity-based policies in a government setting. I hope for a politician who would stand up for religious freedom, who would denounce theocracy warriors, and who would defend Thomas Jefferson’s wall of separation.

Republicans must bear in mind what transpired in New York 23rd in 2009. NY-23rd, held by the GOP since the Civil War, rejected theocracy warriors: Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and other supporters of the Conservative Party, described by Ayn Rand as “not an American political party, but a religious party – A PHENOMENON FORBIDDEN BY THE CONSTITUTION.”

The theocracy warriors chased out pro-choice, pro-gay-rights State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, chosen by local GOP leaders as their nominee. The theocracy warriors sought to dictate.

NY-23rd voters asserted their independence! Doug Hoffman, the candidate of the Conservative Party and the Dark-Ages warriors, lost in 2009 and in the 2010 primary.

I hope for a politician who has the courage to defend EQUAL inherent inalienable rights, who would stand up for ALL businessmen and not just for small businessmen, who would be a representative for ALL citizens and not pander to the poor, the middle class, or to particular minorities.

I hope for a politician who would expose the brazen dishonesty of context dropping.

The United States Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) in 1986, under Ronald Reagan’s watch. EMTALA requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. EMTALA applies to virtually all hospitals in the U.S but includes no provisions for reimbursement. The law is therefore considered an "UNFUNDED safety net program" for patients seeking care at the nation's emergency rooms. As a result of the 1986 EMTALA legislation, HOSPITALS ACROSS THE COUNTRY FACE UNPAID BILLS AND MOUNTING EXPENSES TO CARE FOR THE UNINSURED.

People who tout that the Obamacare/Romneycare individual mandate is unconstitutional evade that the EMTALA, Medicare, Medicaid, and drug prescription entitlements are unconstitutional, too, since independent equals do not have slaves that would provide manmade values like healthcare. It is dishonorable for a state to desire opting out of a healthcare individual mandate without an accompanying opting out of healthcare entitlements. This is wanting something for nothing: the creed of a looter.

Mitt Romney, the only 2012 presidential hopeful (based on my research so far - update 2/13/2011: Gary Johnson was a business owner) who has created jobs in the private sector, is being rejected because of Romneycare.

Sourced from Wikipedia:

With Bain & Company, Romney had a record of success with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated.

In 1984, Romney co-founded Bain Capital. As general partner, Romney was FRUGAL and CAUTIOUS, spending little on office appearance and finding the weak spots in so many potential deals. Their first big success was Staples Inc.; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment.

The firm successfully invested in or acquired many well-known companies such as Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors.

Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. By that time, Bain Capital was on its way to being one of the top private equity firms in the nation, having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, had 115 employees overall, and had $4 billion under its management.

“His reply is two-fold. First, that if the criterion for the plan's success is greater coverage, it's worked. And not only has it worked, it's working "almost precisely as budgeted".

That being said, there are aspects of the program he doesn't like, and if he were King, he'd strip the program of some of its "excessive coverages" to help it break even.

Second, he claims the program's costs are unfairly maligned because they're LOOKED AT IN A VACCUUMM. Health care costs have exploded across the country, including Massachusetts. If you analyze one state, you need to look at the rest, too. One state alone can't quell health care costs, and some changes at the federal level are crucial to enabling success at the local.”

A CEO of a private company must deal with economic regulations while running his company, whether or not he endorses those regulations. Likewise, a governor must deal with UNFUNDED entitlements enacted by others.

Responsible individuals take care of their needs. Honorable citizens do not burden others. Dealing with UNFUNDED entitlements in one’s state so as not to burden other states is honorable. An honorable governor is not vilified by the just, by the honest, by those who do not drop context.

US citizens, do you want the EMTALA, Medicare, Medicaid, and drug prescription entitlements though they do not grow on trees and thus must be funded? If yes, how should they be funded? If not, how should they be funded while convincing others that they should be ended? Honest politicians and voters would not just condemn Romneycare but would answer these questions.

I hope for a politician who learns from his political mistakes and shares them to the world, who appeals to reason, who shows respect to voters by offering them the truth, and who has a firm conviction that the USA is a nation of just and decent people who learn from their own mistakes and would vote for an honest politician committed to the Declaration of Independence.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Royal Serf is a historical and current events novel. Set in the UK and in the US during the 2012 elections, its plot-theme is: a royal’s flight and fight for independence, and an uncommon man’s struggle to uphold the Declaration of Independence.

The British Crown Prince, youngster George, vanishes in 2002. He is succeeded by Prince Hari. Concurrently, Ian Washington arrives in New York bearing a letter from his departed grandmother to Apollo Marianto. The three met in 1996 when Apollo revived a British factory. Ian becomes Apollo’s ward.

In 2012, Ian becomes the UK Prime Minister and Apollo runs for the US presidency.

PM Washington proclaims: “Individual rights are inalienable, thus, not subject to a public vote. Therefore, every law and government practice in contradiction to Individual Liberty is hereby declared nonexistent.” King William, the Commander in Chief of the British armed forces, agrees.

US Presidential candidate Marianto battles the camouflage used by statists to tyrannize: business’s Goliath image. Having a monopoly on legal coercive power, only the government can become a Goliath. Government-Goliath terrorizes Corporate America, the Royal Serf. The US is under a bipartisan dictatorship.

Apollo also proclaims, “Sixty-one years ago, Presidents Truman and Eisenhower did not defend the West’s property rights in oil. In my administration, justice will be done. I will perform the solemn mandate of the government – all nationalized US businesses, including those expropriated by foreign governments decades ago, will be reclaimed!”

Consequently, Apollo and Ian are in the crosshairs of a powerful quartet and a perfect assassin. Terror is unleashed using the Crown Prince desirous of freeing a Royal Serf of tradition, duty, and public opinion: himself. Apollo and Ian must choose: Freedom or Princes George and Hari.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A boy, around six or seven years old, and his grandmother gazed upon a factory which had been reported to be bankrupt. From their parked bicycles, they walked towards the main entrance.
A young man emerged from the financially doomed building. Thin and tall, he stood remarkably straight. His wavy red hair was swept back from his forehead. Head held high on relaxed shoulders.
The grandmother and the boy stopped, electrified by the sight of purposeful mien. She focused on the young man’s face. It reflected her grandson’s passionate earnestness and innocence, untouched by humility. Eyes, the aim of an artist’s quest: the focus of a photographic memory, the uncompromising twinkle, and the intensity that could come only from a brain of extraordinary throughput.

“A teenager - ,” observed the old woman dressed in rags, “- but with the eyes of an active mind, the proud gait of the self-reliant, the aura rooted in rationality: the bearing of a thinker eager for action.”
Her eyes met the teenager’s.
“Hello, Ma’am. Hi kiddo. Have a fine day.”
“Hello. My name is Diana Washington. This is my grandson, Ian Washington.” The boy had a chubby nose and an eyepatch over his left eye.

“I am Apollo Marianto. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“You carry your name so well,” Ian greeted. “God of reason, you exude victory. Can this factory survive?”
“It shall, if it operates in freedom.” Apollo, an American computer and financial genius, had decided to finance the factory.
“I will see to it,” the little boy promised. Diana’s shining eyes embraced the boys.

In the succeeding days, Diana and Ian delighted in the infusion of investments into the factory. Its workers and their families rejoiced.

PROLOGUE 22000 – New York

Eliot Spitzer derived satisfaction from seeing fear in the faces of successful individuals. In the spring of 2000, he arrived at Lisa Jones Inc.
“Hello Apollo!” Spitzer gleefully greeted as he entered Apollo’s office. The Attorney General eagerly anticipated the look of desperation masked by obsequiousness.
“Mr. Spitzer.” Apollo did not attempt to hide his contempt.
“Breaking news and headlines within the hour will report that Lisa Jones Inc. and its CEO are under investigation.” The king did not feel bound to state the charges. “You will lose everything and rot in prison.”
“You threaten in my private property. Get out of my room in a minute and out of my building in five, or else.” Apollo’s face was as calm as his voice.
“Great pain awaits you, brother of Lisa Jones!” Spitzer snarled and then hastily left.

Shortly, an email was sent to employees and stockholders of Lisa Jones Inc. announcing that CEO Apollo Marianto would speak in ten minutes. The speech would be broadcast over the building’s public address system and on the company’s website.

Apollo’s voice was clear and fearless. “Dear investors and colleagues: the New York City Attorney General personally delivered a message a few minutes ago. Quote - Breaking news and headlines within the hour will report that Lisa Jones Inc. and its CEO are under investigation. – unquote. I expect armed troopers and reporters to arrive at any minute.”

A hundred New York State troopers wearing bulletproof vests entered, and many more surrounded, the Lisa Jones Inc. building. One of its security personnel quickly stopped elevator service. A trooper asked a security guard to turn the elevator service back on.

“Use the stairs.”
“Marianto is at the top floor. This is obstruction of justice. Think again. Hard!”
“No one is obstructing you to use the stairs.”
“Get me your building administrator.”
“No one is obstructing you to go get him.”
“Where is he?”
“I plead the Fifth.”

The hundred troopers in the building listened to Apollo’s speech. Many turned on their two-way radios enabling the troopers around the building to hear it, too.

“This company has very high standards. I am proud of our hard work, integrity, and first-class business. I have never infringed nor will I ever violate anyone’s rights.
The Attorney General revels in violating Liberty. Like any tyrant, he has no self, so he seeks it out by destroying those who have. I am a selfish man! I will not be enslaved! I cannot compromise with tyranny - The successful and the affluent have rights equal to the inherent inalienable rights of every man.
I am honored to use the words of Patrick Henry: Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, or wealth and jobs so precious as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? There is but one course – Give me liberty or give me death!
The essence of a respecter of freedom and his opposite is: A respecter of man’s rights is self-reliant, thus, selfish. A dependent has no self-esteem, thus, selfless -- dependence breeds moochers, looters, and power-lusters.
I am proud to hold selfishness as a virtue. A selfish man does not rule nor can he be ruled. If the government deems selfishness a crime, then it has outlawed the Declaration of Independence and Individual Liberty. If a rich, successful individual is deemed a criminal for his wealth, then society has enshrined envy and irrationality as the good. If a brilliant achievement is considered depraved, then evil has triumphed.
I interact with others by reason and persuasion. I create wealth and jobs without infringing anyone’s Rights. I offer my best to the market place. My best creates economic power which the intellectually dishonest equate with coercive power. Economic power uses the tools of reason, persuasion, and innovation – it is devoid of coercive power. The government holds the monopoly to use legal force. When it intimidates a citizen, it has abandoned reason. It is no longer a protector but an aggressor.
Any law, any government act that infringes individual rights is unconstitutional. Patrick Henry said: ‘The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it comes to dominate our lives and interests.’
Power-crazed individuals defile the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. A government that tramples on Rights has taken on the role of a thug.
President George Washington would say: King Eliot Spitzer, his ilk, and their facilitators are abhorrent!
The Attorney General has decided to destroy this company. To compromise with tyranny is to strengthen it. To expose the impotence of tyrants is to glorify freedom. Is my life so dear or this company so precious as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? I honor decent people who have been tyrannized – Give me liberty or give me death!”

Eighty-five troopers walked out of the building. Those who remained looked at their chief for directions. He asked them to follow the others and go back to their precincts. He removed his bulletproof vest and handed it to his second-in-command.
The chief trooper faced the security guard. “I have a warrant for Mr. Marianto. Let me do my job.”
As the chief trooper entered the elevator, many television crews broadcast live that the troopers were leaving the Lisa Jones Inc. building with no sign of Apollo Marianto. Photographers and reporters recorded every detail of the events.
The door to Apollo’s office was opened by his secretary. The chief trooper did not enter. Though he felt revulsion that his noble job had been perverted by a politician, his serious face registered no other emotion as he looked at Apollo. Apollo walked towards the chief trooper, and then followed him to the elevator.
Camera flashes exploded as the chief trooper and Apollo exited the Lisa Jones Inc. building. Apollo was not handcuffed. He walked with the bearing of a free man: proud and unafraid.

Trade volume in the Lisa Jones Inc. stock spiked up. Within the hour, instead of declining, the stock price rose by 20%! In the next hour, the price doubled.
Bill Gates instructed his broker to buy the stock; he deposited $5 billion of his personal money for the stock purchase. CEOs like John Allison of BB&T Inc. did likewise, as much as they could afford. Many employees of the 3,200 companies that Mike Milken financed into prosperity emptied their savings to buy Lisa Jones Inc. stock. Numerous residents in Nevada, the state where Milken’s brilliant innovation created around 600,000 jobs, followed suit. Some senior citizens instructed their brokers to buy the stock at any price. Students pooled their resources to do the same.
There were no sellers.

Press releases from the Attorney General’s office flowed. The popular media that battered Mike Milken rehashed their vitriol.

Apollo had been studying law and would take the bar examinations in a year. He did not hire a lawyer nor request bail. He did not answer any of the prosecutors’ questions. Spitzer ordered the arrest of other Lisa Jones Inc. employees, but everyone followed Apollo’s lead.
Apollo’s half sister, Lisa Jones, worried, “The inmates might believe the media’s vitriol that Apollo is evil.” She was terrified that inmates might hurt or kill Apollo.

In jail, inmates asked Apollo about making spectacularly huge amounts of money. “How could you make so much money without being a crook?”

“My mind and my effort create new wealth. If I did not think and endeavor, the new wealth I have created would not have existed. This fact shows that such wealth has not been taken from anyone. The Wright brothers invented the airplane – they created a value – no one had that value before. Thomas Edison created many great things. His inventions raised the standard of living for everyone. As a consequence of inventing more efficient products and methods, others are displaced. But such displacements are temporary and for the better. When a cart is displaced by a car, the cart manufacturer is displaced – if he values progress, he would endeavor to learn a trade involving the more efficient invention – this way, his displacement is temporary.
A valuer of the good distinguishes between the earned and the unearned. If the cart manufacturer is such a valuer, he would admire, not resent, the car inventor. In a free market, in a society where only reason and persuasion are used in production and trade, the only way to acquire wealth is to earn it.
Those who desire the unearned advocate the use of compulsion – they are looters. Lacking self-esteem, they believe they can’t compete in a free market. They don’t respect others and themselves – instead of living by their own effort, they claim entitlement to the fruits of their fellowmen’s labors. Those who do not distinguish between the earned and the unearned are intellectually dishonest. Those who champion regulation and expropriation are no respecters of rights.”

A young inmate named Ben Allen stayed silent but his mind was fired up. Apollo’s words stirred his soul.
A man twice Apollo’s age said, “There is a consensus that selfishness is evil. You don’t care if your stockholders lose money or if your employees lose their jobs. Not caring about others is evil.”
“My values are in a hierarchy. Liberty is topmost. I value freedom more than life because I don’t care to live as a serf. If Lisa Jones Inc. goes bankrupt, if its stockholders lose money, or if its employees lose their jobs, it would be the responsibility of Eliot Spitzer as well as the lawmakers and judges who enable him to act like a thug. In the same way that I will never desire unearned wealth, I will never accept unearned guilt.”

“Everybody says you are evil. Who are you to say everybody is wrong?”
“I think I’m good while almost everyone in the press and the population thinks otherwise. What do I go by? The truth, which I could objectively arrive at by using reason and logic. Not infringing anyone’s rights is good. Achieving wealth without such infringement is glorious. Many denounce the achievement of spectacular wealth as unbridled evil, but they evade the means by which that wealth is achieved. Such evasion is a great injustice. It destroys the good; hence, it is evil.”

“The media say you thumb your nose at public opinion. Why do you disrespect society?”
“I respect a society that respects Rights. I go by reason and logic, by my own mind. One who goes by public opinion or consensus is a second-hander, not an independent thinker. A second-hander, one with no self-esteem, primarily cares about what others think while a first-hander, a selfish independent thinker, primarily cares about the truth, his sacred honor, and his happiness.”
“Spitzer and the popular media tout that your refusal to answer the questions of prosecutors is tantamount to an acceptance of guilt.”
“They defile the Constitution.”

Some who hated Apollo wished he would be harmed in jail, but the inmates did not feel resentment towards him. The night before Apollo was to appear before a Grand Jury, his cellmate was replaced by a tall, muscled man with a scowling face. At his most intimidating, the man stared at Apollo.
Apollo did not acknowledge him in any way.
As soon as the lights were out, Apollo’s cellmate pounced. Thuds and grunts were heard by inmates in the nearby cells. There was a snap of broken bones, and then a final thud.
Apollo appeared before the Grand Jury without a scratch. He proved that brute force was no match against a dedicated mind.

Apollo answered all questions. The grand jurors pondered his words:

“I make much money for myself and my investors. I create wealth through sustained thinking and innovating. I trade with others using reason and persuasion. I worship Liberty. I have never nor will I ever infringe Rights. I say it with great pride: I cherish myself, my sacred honor, and my happiness. I am a selfish man!
I have delegated my right to self-defense to the government mandated by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to secure equal inherent inalienable rights. I await that government to do its noble mandate.”

The Grand Jury ascertained that the evidence presented against Apollo did not warrant trial.
Out of jail and walking to a waiting car, Apollo was asked by a young reporter named Eli Clark, “Mr. Marianto, what happened when you told Mr. Spitzer to get out of your office and the Lisa Jones, Inc. building, or else?”

“King Eliot did not stay to find out.”
“What would you have done?”
“I would have called the police.”

PROLOGUE 32002 – London and New York

On her deathbed, Diana Washington thought of the factory and the thousands more employees it hired. She held her grandson’s hands and whispered, “Ian, the government is putting shackles on the factory... because it is successful.”
“Rest your mind, Grandma. I vow to remove the shackles.”
Diana proudly admired her grandson, “A thinker with wings.” She saw in Ian what was unmistakable in Apollo.
“A conned world will hate Apollo and Ian. Their uncompromising integrity will be denounced as arrogance, their radiant joy as evil-selfishness. Others might be destroyed by this unspeakable injustice, but not my boys. Ian and Apollo will build sanctuaries for human joy. They will fight for their kind of world: a benevolent universe.”
Diana could not conceive of wickedness where opponents of happiness would plot to annihilate her beloved boys, where power-lusters would mark Apollo and Ian for destruction to stop them from erecting barriers that protect the innocents.

The memorial ceremony for Diana Washington was fit for a queen.

Within a month, Ian traveled to New York City. From the airport, he went directly to Apollo’s office at the top of the Lisa Jones Inc. skyscraper.
“Grandmother wrote you a letter.”
Apollo read the short request from Diana. He quickly recovered from his surprise. “I am but twenty-five and a guardian to a thirteen-year-old.”

That day, Ian’s instruction about the business world started. When Apollo brought him home, they went straight to the study. Engraved on the wide wooden door was the following:

“Honesty is fidelity to the truth.
The truth is what conforms to reality.
Integrity is fidelity to logic.
It is the refusal to hold contradictions;
It is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds;
It is honoring one’s mental creations
By giving them physical existence.”

Apollo showed Ian his Journal of Heroes. “George Washington rejected a movement to make him King of the United States, calling it, ‘Abhorrent!’ He is the embodiment of my morality: A moral man does not rule, nor can he be ruled by men.

By the time Thomas Jefferson was six, he had read most of the books in his father’s library. A polymath and polyglot, he is the greatest political thinker. I revere the author of the Declaration of Independence, the father of religious freedom, the advocate of the Bill of Rights, and the President who abolished the slave trade in the US. Slavery was obtruded on the Colonies by King George III. Thomas Jefferson inherited slaves. It was against the law to free them. When he was 26 years old, chosen for the first time to be a member of a legislature, he submitted a bill for the emancipation of all slaves. As a lawyer in 1770, age 27, he defended a slave, saying, ‘Under the law of nature, all men are born free.’
Abraham Lincoln extolled, ‘The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society… All honor to Jefferson - to the man, who in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth,applicable to all men and all times, and so embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.’
Thomas Jefferson said, ‘Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven.’ He regarded John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton the ‘three greatest men the world had ever produced.’
Isaac Newton, an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist, set forth in mathematical terms the laws governing the course of the heavenly bodies. Thinkers marveled at the proportion, balance, harmony and order resident in the natural tendencies of the world. They concluded that the order was consonant with human liberty, that the natural order provided means for man to use his faculties for his benefit, and that man has natural rights.

William Pitt the Younger, one of Britain's greatest Prime Ministers, became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at age 24.

José Rizal passionately advocated knowledge and rights at a time when independent thinkers would surely die. I love his sculpture of a naked woman triumphantly raising a torch, arms stretched high above her head, body straight and proud, feet firmly atop a skull over a thick book. Showing man’s goodness and efficacy, the sculpture entitled The Power of Science over Death represents my values. The woman’s exalted pose is a salute to man’s intellectual and creative power.

At age six, Ayn Rand taught herself to read. I adore her books and her philosophy: Objectivism. I’ve read The Fountainhead a hundred times because it pleasures and fuels me. Reading Atlas Shrugged is like savoring the most delicious fruits from the tree of knowledge. Reading her nonfiction books, e.g. The Virtue of Selfishness, transports me to a sacred place of worship.
She admired Aristotle, the Father of reason and logic, as well as Thomas Aquinas, who said, ‘What reason shows to be true is absolutely true, so that the opposite is absolutely false and impossible.... Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.’
Ayn Rand regarded Victor Hugo as the greatest novelist in world literature because he depicted moral giants in his books. Their actions are heroic, noble, intelligent, and beautiful. A Romanticist, Mr. Hugo’s vision was always focused on the fundamentals of man’s nature, on those problems and those aspects of his character which apply to any age and any country. In Ninety-Three, he projected, ‘What greatness men are capable of, when they fight for their values’!

Ralph Teetor, a prolific inventor, invented cruise control. Blind since the age of five, Mr. Teetor built his first car, a one-cylinder, by age twelve.

At age thirteen, Bill Gates was writing computer programs.

The world owes a lot of its comforts and high standard of living to Thomas Edison. He said, ‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ When asked about his over 2,000 failed attempts to make a working filament for the light bulb, he replied, ‘I didn't fail 2,000 times; I just found 2,000 ways not to make a light bulb.’
I am inspired by his life, as a boy and as a man. I love the movies: Young Tom Edison and Edison the Man....
The achievements of Edison are of public record: 1,368 patents out of which 1,093 are US patents. He founded several companies including General Electric. The world benefited and continues to benefit from his inventions.

In 1907, Edison-worshipper Henry Ford declared, ‘I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessings of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.’
Henry Ford helped win World Wars I & II. He developed mass production for the B-24 Liberator bomber. In World War I and after it, American farmers fed all of Europe. In this critical period, Ford brought out his first farm tractor, the first to be produced on a massive scale and the first to be affordable by average farmers and rural citizens. The inexpensive Ford tractors as well as American farming saved Europe from starvation. Ford held that his tractors were the key to eliminating war and improving the human condition.
Ford was the first man to discover the advantages of mass production and the first to use an assembly line. He was the first to refute in practice the theory of class-warfare. Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers. Using the consumer price index, this was equivalent to $111.10 per day in 2008 US dollars.
Ford opened up his plant and methods to all who wanted to copy them. His system spread like wildfire through the automobile business and into other businesses. Prosperity for every person, including the poor, exploded. The population of the cities flourished, and after nearly 150 years, agrarian America turned into an urban civilization practically overnight.
Henry Ford invented mass prosperity! He extended his offer of employment and prosperity to any capable person who wanted it, including women, blacks, the handicapped, ex-criminals, and Jews. He stood alone against a mountain of criticisms, including accusations of bigotry. But his actions delineate and define him. It takes uncommon benevolence to think and labor, and then share the fruits of one’s labors to the world, without exceptions.”

The ward looked up to his guardian, his hero. “The grandeur of your heroes and mine!”

After supper, Apollo invited, “Let’s go to The Pit Stop. I go there to rest and refuel. Together with my Journal of Heroes, The Pit Stop invigorates and gives me joy.”
Apollo opened the door to The Pit Stop, but did not turn on the lights. It was a large, high-ceilinged room containing works of art. At the end of The Pit Stop were twin miniature skyscrapers that almost reached the ceiling. Their upper floors were brightly lit. Apollo and Ian stopped by the door, solemnly gazing up at the skyscrapers named Twin Beau Ideals. They were of the same mind. “The Declaration of Independence in towering steel - a free mind and ego soaring to the skies - happiness rising in architectural symphony.”

The towers represented a mighty threat to sacrifice-glorifiers and mind-destroyers. Rejecting the hands-off, nonintervention, noninterference imperative in freedom, the subhuman attacked.
Apollo and Ian remembered the day when enemies of freedom and free enterprise destroyed the real-life BIG BUSINESS tower, and haters of equal inherent inalienable rights struck down the real-life EGO-SELFISHNESS skyscraper. The towers were owned by Uncle Sam, but made possible by the private sector.
Apollo told Ian, “Many people revolted at the September 11, 2001 destruction miss the fact that the virtues that made the Twin Beau Ideals possible have been under vicious attack for over a century. Deluge of vilification and injustice have been heaped upon free enterprise, big business, brilliant innovation, spectacular success, and self-interested pursuits of profit and happiness.”
The guardian and his ward each vowed, “What the twin towers stood for must not crumble to ruins. I pledge my life and sacred honor to see you rise again, Twin Beau Ideals, together with the good you represent: reason, liberty, coercion-free economics, science, technology, pride, and joy.”

When Apollo turned on the lights, Ian gazed at a painting of the US flag and its inscription: The USA is a self-portrait of the American people. Autograph America with FREEDOM.

CHAPTER 12012 - London

Starlit skies and 20°C (68°F) temperature capped a sunny London day in June. Tall, flame-haired Prince Hari arrived late evening at Buckingham Palace. The eighteen-year-old heir to the British throne joined his parents, King William and Queen Aaryanna. Not long after, his twenty-year-old sister entered the Queen Mother Den. Princess Diana’s features were harmoniously integrated. Tall, blonde, and zesty, her eyes sparkled.
The royal family watched television for a worldwide news broadcast. A new political party had won in the British general election of 2012.

“The new head of government of the United Kingdom, Mr. Ian Washington, is a year younger than William Pitt the Younger when he became Prime minister of Great Britain in 1783 at age 24. As a teenager five years ago, the new Prime Minister distinguished himself in the business world. His advocacy of economic reforms propelled him, in 2010, to a seat in the House of Commons. His eloquence as a champion of individual rights, and consequently capitalism, marked his tenure as Northumberland’s Member of Parliament.
This photograph was taken two months ago at a London charity event hosted by the former US First Daughter, Reina Roosevelt, voted the Most Eligible Bachelorette five times in a row by the World’s Best magazine. The Prime Minister and Miss Roosevelt met at Princeton University in his college days.
Mr. Washington has always refused to answer questions about his private life. He has never commented on the scoffs directed at the four-year-old plastic surgery done on his nose which resulted, but for his blond hair, into an uncanny resemblance to Prince Hari, the Crown Prince.”

In deference to the British royal family, the news report did not mention that if the king’s and queen’s firstborn were alive, he would be the spitting image of the Prime Minister.
The television screen showed a current photograph of the Prime Minister together with two old shots: one taken at age seven and the other when he graduated summa cum laude from the Princeton University in New Jersey, United States, six years ago. The old photographs showed Ian Washington with a chubby nose and an eyepatch over his left eye.
As King William and Queen Aaryanna beheld the young Prime Minister’s handsome face, they ached for their firstborn, Prince George, who vanished in 2002.

Princess Diana contemplated Ian’s face. “Mr. Washington is a year older than George.” Her intense longing was well hidden.
“The Prime Minister is left-handed while George is right-handed. I heard how he handles a gun with his left hand. He is a crack shot.” Prince Hari voiced the thoughts of the royal family. “I sometimes evade all the evidence that Mr. Washington is not George. It is a pleasure to think that George is back.”
King William called attention to the book he was rereading. “His grandmother’s novel, Freedom, is great.”
“What a marvelous book from an extraordinary woman,” the Queen enthused. “No wonder the boy she raised and home-schooled has such a brilliant mind.”

The world watched the recent speech of the young Prime Minister.

“King William has asked me to form a government and I have accepted… Beloved citizens of a great nation: William Pitt the Younger declared, ‘Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.’ I echo my beloved mentor, Apollo Marianto, - ‘The United Kingdom is a self-portrait of our people. Autograph our nation with FREEDOM.’ As I vowed before my revered Grandmother, I swear before you that I will forever be a dedicated advocate of equal inherent inalienable rights.…”

The world noticed. “The Declaration of Independence from a British Prime Minister with an American accent.”

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Best premises and good fortune!

Reason Reigns and Royal Serf - A Hearing

“It’s not criminals who provoke great hatred, it’s honest men.” The words of a polymath and polyglot executed by tyrants at age 35: Dr. Jose Rizal.

Honesty is fidelity to the truth. The truth is what conforms to reality. Integrity is fidelity to logic. It is the refusal to hold contradictions; it is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds; it is honoring one’s mental creations by giving them physical existence.

I hold that the honest would accord my novels, Reason Reigns and Royal Serf, a hearing. I expect hatred from the moral descendants of the executioners of Dr. Rizal and the persecutors of Galileo, and from the enemies of the principle of individual liberty. They destroy rather than stand the test of truth and reason.

Reason Reigns extols independent thinkers, and Royal Serf honors the Declaration of Independence. These novels proclaim that the right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to selfishness.

Royal Serf’s Apollo says: “One not concerned with oneself has no desire to live. The concept of one’s concern for oneself, represented by the word selfishness, has been twisted to mean malevolence towards others. Those who desire to live but accept the twisted meaning of selfishness unwittingly facilitate insidious destroyers. Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, destroyers demonize their core by associating callousness and malevolence with selfishness.”

Apollo responds to this request from an interviewer: “Use major swindler Bernard Madoff to contrast a selfish man with a selfless man.” -

“The basic selfishness criteria are self-preservation and self-reliance followed by self-love and self-respect. Bernard Madoff is not self-reliant. A dependent, he fed off his victims. Unmindful of losing his liberty, he committed massive fraud. Self-preservation is clearly absent – Madoff does not value himself. He fails even the basic selfishness test. Madoff is selfless.”

Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love.

The sixteenth amendment, a stick-up of hard-earned wages, tramples on the Declaration of Independence and incinerates property rights. The Antitrust Law spits on logic, puffing up that free competition must be enforced! Undefined, flexible, contradictory laws are hailed. Sacrifice is the Holy Grail. Selfishness is trumpeted as having horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork.

Honesty demands that one’s soul be put on trial: The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil. Integrity must be summoned to reclaim the Declaration of Independence from the clutches of sacrifice glorifiers.